: HT back on ABC, beats TOI in Delhi market

After missing an accounting period, the Hindustan Times (HT) is back on the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) and the numbers are enough cause for cheer for the publication. This is especially so after the two readership surveys – National Readership Survey (NRS) and Indian Readership Survey (IRS) – put the daily at the No. 2 position in Delhi, a market HT has traditionally ruled, behind arch rival The Times of India. With the latest ABC figures, HT has beaten The Times of India to claim the No. 1 slot in the Capital.

An ABC certificate shows that for the period July to December 2006, in the city of Delhi, the certified circulation figure for HT is 7,82,127 copies, which puts it some 30,000-odd copies ahead of TOI which has been certified at 7,51,447 copies.

The certificate also divulges that the circulation of Hindustan, the Hindi daily from HT Media, is 2,50,288 copies in the July to December 2006 round in Delhi, against the last certified figure of 1,91,837 in July-December 2005. It may be recalled that in the interim period, HT Media also decided to revamp Hindustan and make it all-colour.

HT officials have confirmed the circulation numbers and also informed that in Mumbai, the paper is yet not an official member of ABC, as they entered the Mumbai market only in 2005.